


Cute Artist

by peppermintquartz



Series: Beautiful Stranger [2]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Artist Finn, Coffee Shops, Crossfit Jesus Seth, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pre-Relationship, bisexual disaster Seth, they're both dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppermintquartz/pseuds/peppermintquartz
Summary: “Hi, excuse me, may I sit here?” Seth asks.The guy looks up and the hood falls down.Oh, Seth thinks. The guy has the bluest eyes and really red lips. His short dark hair looks soft and the fade only accentuates the lines of his neck and his bearded jaw. Oh no. He's cute.





	Cute Artist

**Author's Note:**

> Companion piece to Beautiful Stranger

Seth can usually find a seat at the counter, but for some reason The Coffee Hug is twice as crowded as it normally is. The barista behind the counter – Bayley, her name tag reads – isn't Becky who works the afternoon shift and already knows him well, so he has to tell her exactly how he likes his cortado.

Bayley listens to the detailed instructions with a bright, warm smile throughout, despite the crowd, so he leaves a bigger tip in the jar. Good service and all that. The cortado smells perfect, which soothes his slightly jumpy nerves.

Today he is going to meet his new business partner, Sasha Banks, at the gym which he is going to run as head trainer. She's just bought it from another person, but she is thinking of converting that to a Crossfit box because that is the next craze, and most Crossfit practitioners are loyal customers.

Seth loves the challenge of Crossfit and is eager to take the lead in making over a place to convert more people to the benefits of the sport. He just has to make sure he can impress her. His old boss Hunter hasn't been too happy about him leaving, but Seth wants to make it out of Hunter's shadow.

Sasha and Seth have been going over the details of his role the past two weeks, and the two weeks before that, he's spent unpacking and learning the neighborhood.

Scanning the coffee shop for a place to sit and finish his drink, he spots a table that's occupied by a guy in a hoodie. The guy is frowning at a sketchbook and scratching out whatever he has written on it, but at least he's not some hipster with the too-cool-for-everyone indoor sunglasses and earphones and skinny jeans.

In fact, as Seth wends his way through the crowd, he notices that the guy has a fairly fit body. Perhaps he's an athlete of some sort. Then he sees that the guy is drawing – he's an artist. The art is cute and punk at the same time, and very distinctive. Seth feels that he'll be able to recognize that style anywhere.

“Hi, excuse me, may I sit here?” Seth asks.

The guy looks up and the hood falls down.

 _Oh,_ Seth thinks. The guy has the bluest eyes and really red lips. His short dark hair looks soft and the fade only accentuates the lines of his neck and his bearded jaw. _Oh no. He's cute._

“Uh, sure,” says Cute Artist. His Irish accent is very strong and Seth's heart flips in his chest.

 _Oh my god. He can read me anything. Takeout menus. Instruction manuals. Financial reports._ Seth sets his coffee down next to a mug of tea and thanks Cute Artist, trying not to show how flustered he is. As he removes his scarf and beanie, he wonders if it's too gauche to ask for Cute Artist's name and number.

However, when he finally sits down, Cute Artist is already back at work on his sketches, drawing a variety of animals. Giraffes keep appearing, for some reason, with big round hooves. It's all extremely adorable.

Even more adorable is Cute Artist when he draws. The tip of his tongue is sticking out, just enough to be tempting, and his brow is slightly furrowed. He has really elegant and strong hands too, Seth observes, and reminds himself not to be a perv about it. Instead, he fishes out his phone to text Dean and Roman to keep them updated. They are skeptical (Dean) but supportive (Roman), and already his buddies are making plans to visit in June.

_D: you got the numer of tht barista yet?_

_S: shes got a girlfriend dean and her gf is an amazon queen_

_D: you mean like drag queen or_

_S: no i mean tall n built like a goddamn tank fi a tank is blonde with a fantastic bod, i think sh e can knock me out if she punches me_

_R: ..._

While Seth waits for Roman's reply, Cute Artist grunts and turns the page. The barista, Bayley, notices and comes over and tops up Cute Artist's tea. Seth's hopes begin to flag.

“How's it going?” she asks.

“Hey babe,” Cute Artist replies. Seth's heart sinks to the floor. Cute Artist passes his sketchbook to Bayley and lets her flip through the pages. “I don't know. What do you think?”

Bayley frowns. “Mm. I don't know.” She puts the sketchbook on the table. “She'll want something bolder, I think.”

Cute Artist moans and his head falls forward to thunk on the table. His despair is so ridiculous and adorable that Seth wants to buy him balloon animals to cheer him up. _Oh no. I have a crush on a random guy at a coffee shop and he has a girlfriend and I don't even have his name. I am pathetic._

“Keep going babe,” says Bayley, petting the back of Cute Artist's head. “I'm sure you'll get there.”

“Thanks.”

Cute Artist bonks his head on the table a couple more times and now Seth has to speak up, because he cannot take any more of such endearing antics. “Hey, you're gonna spill my coffee, man.”

Immediately the guy sits up, his cheeks pink. Seth has to remind himself that Cute Artist and Barista Bayley are dating and he must not make a move. Cute Artist tugs on his ear and says, “My bad. Just trying to bash through artist block, sorry.”

“No harm done,” Seth says. He wants to keep Cute Artist talking, just to hear more of his voice. Frantically rummaging through possible topics of conversation, Seth stammers, “Your girlfriend makes really good coffee. I’ve just moved in down the block like a month ago and I’ve been here at least twenty times. First time I’ve seen you though, but I usually come in only after lunch.”

_Shit. Fuck. I'm babbling. Thank fuck Dean and Renee aren't here, they'll never let me live it down._

Cute Artist turns even pinker. “Bayley’s not my girlfriend.”

Seth's ears perk up.

“She’s my best friend. I'm gay,” Cute Artist continues, unaware that in Seth's world, the skies have cleared and angels are singing. “And uh, I-I usually work from home, and yeah, she makes great coffee, and I’ll tell her you said so, and um, she lets me use this table when I need to have white noise around me because I invested in her shop and-”

He stops, suddenly, like he realizes he is saying too much to a stranger, and his blue eyes dart from Seth's eyes to the table, as if embarrassed.

Seth thinks his heart is going to explode with glee. Cute Artist is gay, and he seems to be interested. Then those baby blues look up again and Seth forgets all his smooth pickup lines. Instead, his tongue feels thick and unwieldy in his mouth.

“Well,” he manages to say, “I’m glad you invested in this place because I now have great coffee anytime I want some. Please do tell her that too.”

_Oh my fucking God Rollins, you might as well have stamped 'UNDATEABLE NERD' on your forehead, what the FUCK was that response?_

To keep from humiliating himself further, he drinks his cortado. He's been to a number of coffee places around the neighborhood and this is the only place that makes it properly, without the milk overwhelming the coffee flavor. It's obnoxious of him but Seth used to be way more obnoxious than that, so he thinks keeping his coffee preference is, on the whole, not a bad deal.

Cute Artist sets his pencil down to take his mug of tea, but his hoodie sleeve catches the binding of the sketchbook and knocks it over. Papers fall out of the book, all with drawings of varying levels of detail.

“Oh shit!” Cute Artist blanches, but he at least puts down his tea before getting down to pick his artwork up.

Seth helps too, telling people around them to stop walking just so he can gather all the papers. As he does so, he sees all sorts of drawings, some in the charming kid-lit style like the giraffes earlier, and some almost angry graffiti-type designs. There's a certain flair to all of them, however, and Seth wishes he can look through the sketchbook.

“Thank you,” says Cute Artist sincerely as he tidies up the pages. “It's really... It's that sort of day for me, I think.”

“Been there, man,” says Seth. Good, he sounds a lot more natural now. “All of these are yours?”

“Yeah.” Cute Artist fidgets and averts his eyes.

Seth nods. “You're really good. How long have you been drawing?”

The smile that blossoms on Cute Artist's face is like the dawn. It is astounding how he lights up the room with a simple expression. No one else in The Coffee Hug matters. Seth's poor heart flips again.

“What? What did I say?” he asks, just so he can try to meet Cute Artist again and say the same thing again to get that brilliant, beautiful smile again.

Cute Artist is bashful now. His cheeks and the tips of his ears are pink. “Nah. Most times people say I'm talented.”

“Talent is nothing without hard work.” It's a saying Seth learned from Hunter. It makes Cute Artist blush and that makes all the shit Seth went through with his old boss worth it. “You must've worked your ass off to get that good.”

Cute Artist is definitely flustered now.

 _This is your chance,_ Seth thinks, and he is just about to ask Cute Artist for his name and number when his phone rings. He swears internally, but answers right away.

“ _Seth? Sasha here.”_

“Yeah, hey,” says Seth. _Gimme five minutes, Sasha, come on._ Cute Artist's smile is gone and he's back to playing with his pencil.

“ _We were supposed to meet ten minutes ago, are you gonna be here soon?”_ Sasha asks.

“Really?” Seth checks his watch and curses silently in his head. He is late, and he hates being late to anything. “Goddammit. Yeah I'm coming right now.”

He finishes his coffee, pulls on his beanie and his scarf, and makes sure he grins at Cute Artist as a signal that he really doesn't want to go but he has a plan. He knows Cute Artist is Barista Bayley's friend, so all he has to do is ask Barista Bayley to introduce them.

It's a mad dash to Sasha's gym, and she scowls at him when he shows up panting.

“Well I guess your run counts as warm-up,” she says. “Come on, test these babies out and we can decide what to keep and what more to buy.”

“We need merch,” says Seth as he changes into his workout clothes. His compression pants are under his jeans and his Dri-fit is under his Henley, so it's really just him shedding his layers. “Once we get them signed up, we can keep them coming back if we can cultivate brand loyalty.”

“I got a guy designing logos for our stuff,” says Sasha.

Seth thinks about Cute Artist. Maybe he can use this as an excuse to get his number from Barista Bayley. “I just bumped into this artist earlier at the coffee place and he's really good, from what I saw. Maybe we can hire him if your guy's work isn't up to par.”

“Oh please,” Sasha says, one hundred percent Cali girl, “Finn's work will kick your guy's ass.”

Seth hums noncommittally. “We'll see. Come on, let's start.”

They go through all the existing machines and they argue over whether they can incorporate each one into a Crossfit workout. It's exhilarating, working with Sasha, because she is opinionated and ambitious, just like Seth.

They are debating how many tires to purchase when someone clears their throat.

“Finn!” Sasha says when she looks over. “You're early. Hey, Seth, this is the graphics designer I was telling you about, Finn Balor. He’s doing designs for the towels and bottles and all that. Take a look at his stuff. Bet the guy you met is nowhere near his skills.”

Seth thinks the angels have returned to put on an encore performance, because right there at the door is Cute Artist. Cute Artist Finn Balor, who is blushing and grinning, looking so endearingly adorable that Seth knows, he _knows_ he is going to fall for Finn real damn soon.

“Hey,” he says. _Keep it natural, Rollins._ “Seth Rollins. I'm gonna be a trainer here.”

He shakes Finn's hand, which is cooler than his own and stronger than Seth expected.

“Small world, huh,” Seth quips, unable to hide his happy grin.

“Yeah,” Finn says, smiling back. “Small world.”

 


End file.
